Harry Potter: Bounty Hunter
by afish.2far
Summary: Five years after the Second Wizarding War, how might Harry's life be? And how might one thing change the world again? Written as a request for God of the Challenge
**A/N** This was a request many months ago from God of the Challenge to write a story which had Harry as a bounty hunter. Life happened which meant I haven't got around to completing this until just now. So for God of the Challenge and to all my other readers who have followed me, this is for you. Hope you enjoy :)

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Auror Harry Potter was bored. All the remaining Death Eaters had been rounded up some time ago, been questioned with Veritaserum and sentenced to Azkaban or the Veil. Now apart from Diagon Alley patrols, attending petty scuffles between family members and Minister guard duty there was nothing to do. All of those jobs were so routine they were boring in themselves. What was the point of working his backside off to gain promotion if it didn't give him any more job enjoyment? Really, even Draco Malfoy would be a welcome relief now, at least he could have a decent verbal spar and get some of his irritation out. But no. He had to be sat in a boring old office watching everyone get on with their boring lives and creating meaningless smalltalk whenever anyone came over. He didn't think Malfoy would be doing this, whatever corner of the world he'd ended up in after fleeing the Battle. Bloody arsehole, creating all the mess and not staying to clear it up. He wasn't the only one either Harry knew. Lots of people had left Britain before he had finally felled the Dark Loser. Some of them were still wanted for questioning, but the theory was that the Ministry didn't want to send their aurors onto foreign soil so were burying their heads about the whole business.

There! That was it! That was what he could do. He was damn well owed some holiday anyway and hadn't he always wanted to go travelling?

Decision made, Harry started researching the unlawful people believed to have escaped abroad. He would find them. Every one of them and he would bring them back here to stand trial. He knew it would take some time and a lot of work to find them, but he would do it. By the time he'd finished researching their lives he would know them better than they knew themselves. He might even hire in a profiler to help him along, the possibilities were endless. Harry was back fighting the bad guys again and he couldn't be happier. The reward money wouldn't be too bad either.

It was another year later that Harry thought he had all the information he needed and could begin the active part of his hunt. His superiors gave him no trouble about his holiday request, but he didn't think that it would be that easy to get around his friends. He wouldn't be able to keep it quiet because as soon as the week's rota went up Ron would know and therefore the rest of the Ministry would know not much later. The redhead never did know when to keep his mouth shut. Harry loved all the Weasleys but they did annoy him from time to time. Hermione was still as bossy and demanding as ever which pissed him off to no end, but he did concede that she could keep a secret. If he had to pick one of these two Hermione was the better option, but as with everything else in his life he had to be dealt with the bad hand.

"You're taking holiday mate?!" Ron asked as soon as he saw Harry. "Where you off?"

"Europe. To start with."

"Why?"

"Why not? We're going to be late for briefing if we don't hurry up now though and you know what Kingsley's like." Harry had done all the hard work thus far on his own, he wasn't going to let anyone share the credit now by jumping in at the last minute.

This conversation was repeated multiple times throughout the course of the day and he just gave the same answer every time. Just as he was leaving, he was cornered by Arthur in the atrium.

"Molly's invited you for dinner tonight" he said. "She's making meat pie."

It was a well known fact that Molly Weasley's meat pie was Harry Potter's favourite food. It was an extremely tempting offer.

Harry let out a sigh with a slight shake of his head. "I'm sorry Arthur, I can't. I've got loads of things to sort out before my trip and tonight's really the only time I can do them."

"Molly will be upset not to have seen you before you go."

"She'll just have to deal with it I'm afraid. I don't feel up to a Weasley inquisition tonight."

"Molly can be a bit forceful I know but she means well."

"Arthur, you're a down to earth person and I like you. Unfortunately I can't say that about the rest of your family and I do not wish to offend anyone tonight. Please, I need to be off. I'll see you when I get back."

Harry stopped off at home to collect his rucksack he'd packed earlier and then checked the time for his portkey. All of his research pointed to Switzerland. It was a proudly neutral country and this annoyed the Death Eaters more than anything else, or so Harry could see. Supporting neither side was worse than supporting the wrong side in their opinion, you didn't know what you were dealing with. Britain was a no-go, the other western european countries had strong governments and too close ties to Britain, so they had gone for Switzerland.

Therefore Harry had packed a bag and purchased a portkey to Geneva.

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Harry had never been to Switzerland before, but the joy of portkeys meant he didn't need to have done. He landed in a busy room where people were queuing to get through some sort of gates. They were all carrying a certain kind of book and seemed to be showing it to the people sitting at desks. These people would look at each person, then their book and then let them through the gates. Every single time.

Having never been out of England before, Harry had never experienced airports or passport control. He fleetingly considered trying to get past without the book everyone else seemed to have but quickly decided against it. He would duplicate someone's and then a slight confundus charm on the guards should do wonders. He was a bit peeved that he had only been here a matter of minutes and was already having to improvise, but once he got out into Switzerland proper then he could put his plan into action.

A few minutes later Harry pulled out his invisibility cloak and slipped it on. He'd got a copy of a passport but the level of detail involved in it was surprising and he realised that it was going to take him a while to change it convincingly. The queue of people was going down and he thought still being seen there once everybody else had gone would not look good. Drat, that meant he probably had to glamour himself as well otherwise they might recognise him.

It took him a further half hour to inspect the book thoroughly and to be sure that he'd changed everything that he needed to. His luck held that just as he finished, a new crowd of people came into the room and Harry headed through the gates with them, copying what they did. Once he was outside he breathed a sigh of relief. That was certainly unexpected but he'd got through it. He had bought a tourist portkey to Switzerland so it kind of made sense, although whether any wizards had passports, Harry didn't know. Maybe they all did. All muggles seemed to have them and he wasn't surprised that his relatives hadn't got him one before, it was an unnecessary expense to them and he was never allowed on their family holidays anyway. So maybe wizards needed passports to travel just as muggles did. Perhaps he'd look it up when he got back.

For now, he realised, he needed to work out where to go. He'd assumed that a magical transport device would land him in the magical part of the city. He knew Geneva had one. Since that now appeared a mistaken assumption he needed to find someone that could tell him how to get there. He didn't know why he'd never researched this before leaving England, it just hadn't ever crossed his mind. But now he was in an unknown muggle city; how was he going to manage to find the magical part? It wasn't like he could just walk up to every passing stranger and ask them if they were a wizard. Besides it was getting dark.

Stranded, alone and in the dark reminded Harry of the time before his third year when he'd inflated Aunt Marge and then run away. That time he'd inadvertently summoned the Knight Bus when he tripped over and flung his hand out. Wait! Would there be something like that here? It was worth a go at least, surely? There wasn't really anybody around and the most that would happen was that he'd look a bit odd flinging his arm out. Looking a bit odd to the odd muggle over the possibility of wizarding company and transport was a price worth paying right now in Harry's book.

He flung his right arm out, wand in hand just in case, and stumbled back in shock when a resounding boom rang out. Looking up he saw a huge plume of smoke and through the smoke a very familiar purple triple decker bus. Noone had come to investigate the noise or the smoke, indeed the couple of people he could see appeared to be entirely ignorant of the whole event, more intent on wheeling their trolleys to their cars.

"Monsieur! Monsieur! Bienvenue a Bus du Chevalier Suisse! Je m'appelle Pierre Jardin et je serai ton contrôleur ce soir. Où voudrais-tu aller?"

Harry looked on blankly. He was so far out of his depth now, he couldn't even see the point where his feet last touched the floor. He knew it was French, but he didn't understand any of it. He wished Hermione was here, she spoke French like it was English. She had specifically learnt it after the war saying that it was good to know in case you ever needed it. He'd tried to learn with her, but it was difficult and he got bored easily. He desperately tried to recall something, anything. There had been that time right at the start where they'd been told "if you only remember one sentence, remember this". What was it?

Harry racked his brains trying to work it out, trying to find anything useful in his memories of those lessons. Finally the sentence came to him, but he wasn't entirely sure it was exactly right. Hopefully it would be enough.

"Je... ne com-prend-s pass" he stuttered out.

"Tu ne comprends?"

At Harry's continuing blank look, the conductor pointed his wand at his head, then Harry's head and then flicked it sharply in the air.

"Sorry about that lad, should've thought what with it being an airport and all." He grinned sheepishly.

"Wait what?! How do you know English now?"

"English is it? That answers my next question then! Translation spells laddie, I'd advise you learn them if you aren't great at French."

"Translation spells let you speak foreign languages?" Harry asked in awe. That would be cool.

"Unfortunately not, they just translate all of your words into a language that others understand. I'm talking and listening in French, you're talking and listening in English. I know a bit of your language but not enough to hold a conversation like this."

"Can you teach me? And what did you say when you first got here?"

"Sure, we're not busy tonight, you're the only summons we've had. Come in. As for what I said, it was the welcoming speech. Want me to say it again?"

"Go on then."

"Very well. Welcome to the Swiss Knight Bus! I am Pierre Jardin and I will be your conductor this evening. Where would you like to go?"

"Hi Pierre. I'm Harry. I'd like to go to Geneva's Magical Section, but I think I'd be best leaving it until tomorrow. Could you take me somewhere I can stay the night that's nearby there?"

"You don't want to be going there mate. Not if you want to stay alive. There's fights there daily these days, some people in dark cloaks and white masks don't like that we stay neutral. Personally I don't care about politics, but the whole city is shutting down. Seriously lad, you can stay overnight here, but I'd get back to England tomorrow. There's nothing for a wizard in Geneva these days."

"Thanks. I'll think about it. Could you teach me that translation spell now? I'd hate to get in another situation like this. Next time it might not be a charming bus conductor I meet."

By the following day Harry had learnt several things. One, he'd learnt the translation spell. Two, he'd learnt that Geneva had been an extremely prosperous city before 1998. Three, in 1998 when some English wizards had been granted asylum from the war in Britain it was big news, but in Pierre's humble opinion that was when the trouble started, and four the name of the magical district was called La Place Brillante or Bright Square, but it had been nicknamed Fate Alley by the locals due to the likelihood of not coming back alive and as a mockery to the British pun on naming streets. This was, Pierre told him, the only way the local population thought they could show their displeasure with these black robed, white masked Englishmen without fear of immediate death.

After repeated assurances that he could handle himself and that he knew what he was getting into, Harry finally got Pierre to drop him off outside the entrance to the street. He was told again that he would have to come out here to summon the bus if he required it as they no longer entered the street for any reason. Harry nodded his understanding, assured the kind Swiss man again that he would be fine, paid his fare and got off. He had remembered to ask how to get onto the street itself, but apparently the door led straight here so all he had to do was open it and walk through.

La Place Brillante was indeed a square with shops and cafes on each of the four sides facing in towards a central paved area containing a big fountain and some outdoor seating. Most of the shops Harry could see were boarded up, maybe just a quarter or so of them open or so he guessed. There were very few people out shopping despite it being a Saturday morning and Harry sighed. Switzerland had taken on these people out of the goodness of their hearts and these people repayed them by forcing their magical district into complete meltdown.

Suddenly even the few people out in the square vanished. Harry looked up and saw why. Black cloaks and white masks had made an appearance. Quickly Harry shot off a patronus to all shoppers and shopkeepers urging them to remove anything thought irreplaceable and then floo or apparate out.

Barely a minute later the area was blasted to rubble. But crucially that area was exactly where the Death Eaters had landed and now they were trapped. Harry approached them with a smirk.

"Not so brave now are you fellars?" he quipped. "The bounty I'll get for you will be quite high when I hand you lot over to the Ministry. I wonder what I'll do with it. Gold sweet gold. They've been dying to meet you for some time you know. Got veritaserum in stock and everything. You'll soon be singing like canaries."

Harry smirked at the trapped wizards again and turned to see a small crowd gathered.

"Thankyou sir" one lady gasped, falling at his feet.

"No need miss but you're welcome" Harry replied, extending a hand to help her up. "Those lot have just netted me a tidy sum from the British Ministry."

"What about my shop?" a harsh voice called out. "It's completely destroyed."

"Collateral damage is a side effect of a blasting curse I am afraid. But since, as you say, I caused it I shall of course pay for any repairs and upgrades you feel are necessary. You opened your heart to Britain and they repaid you in the cruellest way. I intend to make amends for that. Bring back your shops and your cafes, bring back your way of life and if anyone in a black robe with white mask threatens you again, just blast the place down on top of them and send word to your Ministry for Magic. Britain has a bounty in place for capture of men dressed like that but it does not have to be a Briton who claims.

You get them off the streets, you live your life and you get tons of money into the bargain! What more could you want? Stick up for yourselves and they won't have a chance. Now I must be off, I'll come back in a few days to see how you're going. Charge any immediate expenses to Gringotts vault Britain eight two six. Good day."

Harry grabbed the hand of the closest Death Eater and vanished.

Being an auror did have its perks, Harry thought as he portkeyed directly into the Ministry holding cells. He checked that his prisoners were still secure and then cast a patronus to summon Kingsley Shacklebolt. He chuckled as he gave the stag its message:

"Kingsley, your presence is required asap in holding cell three. HP."

Harry wondered how long it would take before the man turned up and so decided to time him. One minute later a long gong resounded as the man in question materialised.

"Harry? Your message sounded important" Kingsley asked urgently.

Harry grinned widely. "You owe me 125,000 galleons I do believe."

Kingsley looked behind the young man and his mouth opened in shock. Five of the ten men manacled there he recognised and all five did have a 25,000G price for capture on their heads.

"How? What? I thought you were on holiday!" he spluttered.

"You know what they say about aurors Kingsley, they can't go on holiday without finding a crime!" Harry retorted with a wink.

A short, chubby man ran into the room interrupting their conversation. He was red faced with sweat beading off his forehead and he was panting heavily.

"Auror Potter? I heard the gong." he gasped.

"Ah sorry Jones I had a matter of utmost importance for which I required the Minister immediately. I do apologise."

"The gong is only for emergencies though." Jones was now grasping the doorframe for support and panting hard but he still looked unconvinced.

"The danger has passed, but thankyou for your swift action. You may return to your duties" Kingsley answered.

Jones looked up in shock at the other voice. Seeing the Minister for Magic he bowed and muttered a quick "yes Minister" before shuffling away.

"You went to find them didn't you?" Kingsley continued.

"And if I did? I used all my own time to research and apprehend them, anybody could have done that if they'd wanted." He shrugged. "Shame I didn't get Malfoy though, ah well I've got three days of holiday left."

Kingsley let out a bark of laughter. "Anyone else would be more than ecstatic about capturing Nott, Macnair, Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange and Avery in one go, but all you can say is shame you missed Malfoy... You don't half come out with some stuff Harry. As you say you did all of this in your own time so I see no reason why you can't claim the bounty. I'll speak to the goblins in the morning. Do you plan on making a habit of this?"

"Yes actually, I rather enjoyed it."

Kingsley's stopped in his tracks. "You what sorry?"

"I need something to keep me occupied when you kick me out of here two days a week, plus all this holiday you keep giving me, so why not?"

"You want to go out and find wanted criminals?"

"Provided they have a bounty on their heads, yup! People, objects, ghosts - anything. Create a most wanted list and state the money people can get from capturing them. Make it so everyone can see it, then no-one can accuse me of taking favours. I chase baddies and get paid for doing it, it's what I've always dreamed of. Best bit is I'll do it all when I'm not working here."

"Harry Potter the Bounty Hunter eh? We'll see. Now go off and enjoy the rest of your holiday. I'll get this lot booked in and let you know trial dates and so forth."

"Thanks, perhaps we should try not to alarm Jones quite so much next time!" Harry laughed.

"But you have to admit his face was something after running that far. I'd guess he didn't even know I was here until I spoke!" Kingsley returned with a smirk. "Now begone!"

"Alright alright I'm off."

Harry whistled happily as he strolled back through the corridors to the apparition point. He would get Malfoy and then Merlin knew who or what would be next, but whatever happened it had to be a damn sight more exciting than his life had been in the last couple of years.

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He didn't actually have to find Lucius Malfoy in the end, the Swiss people did it for him. When he returned to La Place Brillante, the shop owners presented the man to him all wrapped up, complete with bow. Harry chuckled about that moment for days afterwards. He gifted all 150,000G bounty to the Swiss marketplace and topped it up with another 150,000G from his vault. With money practically no object and magic at their disposal, the renovation happened quickly and soon Fate Alley was back to its original splendour. Ironically that nickname became widely used as a moniker for how safe the square was now the inhabitants felt able to fight back.

A list did indeed go up in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement of those most wanted on foreign soil. Harry caught most of them but the money available incited a few others to join in also. Harry always gave the money he earned to the place that he retrieved the target from, as he said one time in a speech

"I couldn't spend my parents' fortune in one lifetime, let alone the Blacks' and now my own! Once everyone knows we can stand up to those who mean to do us harm, it becomes a lot harder for them to get anywhere. Let's rebuild everywhere they knock down and show them just what we can do!"

After this Kingsley knew that whilst he maybe Minister for Magic, it was Harry who was leading the people. All he had to do was keep the money flowing and since convicted criminals forfeited all of their assets to the Ministry that wasn't all that hard to do.

Using criminals' own money to fund their captures had a delightful sense of irony to it, he thought. And as long as he kept supplying people for Harry to hunt down, he kept him happy. This in turn kept the people happy, kept the Aurors happy and best of all it took the baddies off the street. It was a situation most Ministers could only dream of. Cheers Harry.


End file.
